Interactive white boards are growing in popularity, and they are used in classrooms for students of all ages. An interactive white board is a framed screen that electronically responds to input from a user. Interactive white boards may have highly reflective (i.e., white or silver) screens used in conjunction with projectors, and they may also just have flat panel screens similar to a flat panel computer monitor. Regardless of the type of screen, the interactive white board is made large enough so that an entire classroom can benefit from its use.
Interactive white boards may be equipped with a specialized pen that allows the interactive white board to track the pen's movements as the pen is close to the surface of the interactive white board. Interactive white boards may also be equipped with a specialized surface that is responsive to pressure so that user input may need only to be a pressure applied to the surface of the screen, such as pressure from a pen, an eraser, or a finger. Interactive white board pens may also be pressure sensitive such that the pen communicates with the interactive white board about when the pen tip is being depressed.
Interactive white boards may also have buttons around a frame of the screen. These buttons may be programmed to do a variety of different tasks, depending on how the interactive white board is to be used. With the combination of a specialized screen, specialized buttons, and the large viewing area appropriate for a classroom, the interactive white board has steered the teaching community away from traditional white boards and chalk boards.
On the other hand, traditional white boards and chalk boards have advantages. In the event of a technology or power difficulty, teachers often prefer to have the traditional white board or chalk board to fall back on. However, traditional white boards and chalk boards do not provide the ease of saving information, or the visual stimulation of combined high end media and simple pen and screen. Thus, teachers accustomed to interactive white boards will often fall back on traditional white boards or chalk boards when necessary. A visual space problem has been created from the dual use of regular white boards and chalk boards along with interactive white boards in the classroom. Interactive white boards are frequently organized in classrooms on a stand that takes up floor space. While the stand may be mobile, it is less than ideal for a room already in need of extra floor space. Interactive white boards may also be fixed to the wall. However, there are already chalk boards and white boards taking up much of a classroom's wall space. Classrooms are often too small already, and crowding the wall space and floor space of a classroom with multiple teaching boards makes it difficult for teachers to effectively utilize regular white boards and chalk boards along with the interactive white board.
The subject invention provides a new way for interactive white board users to utilize regular white boards and chalk boards along with interactive white boards in the classroom. This invention allows an interactive white board to be mounted on the same wall space as an existing chalk board or white board, without sacrificing the utility of the chalk board or white board. By saving floor space and wall space, the subject invention allows teachers to maintain a central focus point in the classroom while allowing the teacher to use several tools to communicate from that focus point.